Critics Rant

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Sometimes I take it for granted what I think people already know. I told a friend of mine that I had quit smoking on Chantix over a year ago. She said she would like to quit but Chantix was to expensive. I suggested she try to apply for help with her prescription through Pfizer. She did and both her husband and herself get Chantix for free for one year!! Woo Hoo! Isn’t that cool. So she is all excited and told all of her friends. This is what she sent to all of her Facebook friends:

A NOTE TO ANYBODY WANTING TO QUIT SMOKING! A friend of mine recently told me about a program that Pfizer offers for people wishing to quit smoking. If you meet the income requirements Pfizer will give you Chantix free for one full year! They make you re-apply every year, so technically you can get it for longer than a year, as long as you still qualify! Ed & I received our first 3 month supply yesterday! What a great deal! If we hadn’t found out about this program the medicine would have costs us $136/month each! We started the medicine today & already can see it working! Cigarettes taste horrible! You go to http://www.Pfizer.com to get information & the application! If you qualify Pfizer will send a 3 month supply to your doctor’s office, for free, every 3 months, for an entire year! Ed & I are very excited to quit smoking, we have a lot of hope that this medicine will help us do it!!! Wish us luck!!!

Here is a Quick List of Quit Smoking sites on the internet. This is by no means a complete list but some of my favorites that helped me along the way:

QuitNetWhyQuitAmerican Cancer Society -Nationwide network of free local quit lines at 800-QUITNOW, questions answered by e-mail, message boards, brochures, other information on quitting smokingAmerican Lung Association -800-LUNG-USA-Freedom From Smoking online program, information about quitting smoking, facts about lung diseases and treatments, moreChantixSmokefree.govNational Cancer Institute -877-44U-QUIT-Detailed information about tobacco and how to quit, surgeon general’s reports, live messaging service at Cancer.gov/HelpNicotine-Anonymous.org -415-750-0328-List of local meetings in the United States and worldwide, publications in nine languages

Okay, here goes nothing. I haven’t written for so long I think I may have forgotten how. I am still smoke-free and it has been …hang on a minute, I have to go check my calculator for how many days now. I know it has been 9 months, but not sure on the days… 294 days, 1 hour, 57 minutes and 9 seconds. Well now that is pretty awesome isn’t it?

Tough decisions we make.

My weight is still the same, no more, no less. I am still taking the Thyroid medicine and now have added Lipitor, 40mg, for my Cholesterol. Uggggh! Being in denial about my health was so much easier, and cheaper. Of course, denial allowed me to continue to slowly kill myself with cigarettes. Not where I am really at now a days.

Being a non-smoker is pretty wild:

I can complete a project without hurrying through it so I can go get my fix, i.e. scrapbooking.

I can go on a trip in a car with non-smokers and not feel bad for making them pull over every two hours so I can get my nicotine fix.

I can walk in the woods with my camera and take pictures and not have to keep taking breaks to get my nicotine fix.

I can be totally relaxed in the movie theater and watch the entire movie without trying to figure out how I can go out and get my nicotine fix.

I can just BE. I can BE in the moment, BE where I am, BE who I am, BE with my children, BE with my Dad, BE with my friends. I can just BE for hours and hours of sweet, relaxing, peaceful, and serene joy.

It sounds pretty good doesn’t it? Well, it is great. Don’t get me wrong, I have had my moments of cravings, the “deep in the pit of my stomach, gonna die if I don’t have a cigarette,” type of cravings. That was only about 30 days ago. So, yes, cravings never go away, it just goes into a sort of remission and from time to time it will rear it’s ugly head again.

I have thoughts about smoking probably daily but I don’t dwell on them and feed them by focusing on how great it would be to feed my addiction one last time. When I have a thought, I push it out of my mind as fast as I can so I can move on to the next thought that is about something else all together.

This will be a lifetime process I am sure. I just hope the thoughts aren’t quite as frequent, like every day. Every other day will be good. It has slowed down some, it was every minute in the beginning. I am still very grateful that I had Chantix to help me through those times. It helped me until I could help myself. It was a miracle drug and I have no regrets for using it. I feel blessed that I could take it and not suffer from the side effects that some people have been through.

I am back among the living. They only pulled four teeth this time. I go back January 31st for the rest of the uppers. If you are not sure what I am babbling about now, check out my previous post, Gum Disease & Smoking, It’s so Glamorous.

Today I am feeling almost normal! Tylenol has been working great and it was definitely NOT FUN. Yesterday I felt like I had been kicked in the jaws by a horse.

Now, CNN had this story, (above), in their Health section. They are calling these “New” but, for those of us in the trenches of quitting smoking and trying to kick the nicotine addiction, there is nothing “new” here. I thought for any newbies that are just learning about some anti-smoking strategies, these would be a big help.

Both are excellent suggestions in my opinion. The only scary thing is the part about “smoking while on the patch.” I would not recommend doing that, without talking to your “well educated on quit smoking aides” Doctor.addictionquit smoking
TTFN

Of All the times I’ve tried to start a blog and keep it up, I never dreamed that the one thing that would get me writing again would be quitting smoking. I’ve missed writing. Being a free lance reporter for a few years was wonderful. At the time I was working three jobs and taking classes at the junior college. My children were in 4th and 5th grade and “busy” was an understatement. Then life got crazy and so did I and lost the little bit of progress I had made at that time toward becoming a more spiritual person. Well, better late than never. Like that song by Brooks & Dunn, “God blessed the broken road….” Isn’t that the truth. Anyway, I think I am addicted to blogging. Last night when I went to sleep I was thinking about what I wanted to write about. Of course this morning it was completely gone and my mind was a blank.

Any way, not smoking with Chantix is unbelievable! I have been on it 4 weeks and I can’t afford to get more so I am weaning myself off of it. I was forgetting my evening pill anyway, so I just decided to make it last and take only one in the morning. This is the 3rd day of that and so far so good. Actually, I’m not having the wierd “smoking” dreams at night anymore. Did anyone else have that? Wow! They were so real that when I woke up I was so relieved that it was a dream and I didn’t really smoke! It was kind of scarey. I hope it’s not too early to go off of it. I know you are supposed to stay on it 12 weeks but a guy I work with was only on it 2 weeks and quit taking it and is still smoke free after 3 months. I really don’t have any choice anyway because Christmas is coming and my money will have to go for that.

Now, my mantras for today are, “I’m happier as a non-smoker”, and “I know I can stay quit.”Ta Ta For Now…